M.P. Dassanayaka, joined Department of Biotechnology as a Demonstrator/Assistant Lecturer in 2009, after completing her BSc. Agriculture degree with honours in 2008 from Wayamba University of Sri Lanka. After a period of two years in the Department she joint a private Horticultural Company in Sri Lanka as aTrainee Officer In charge of the Tissue Culture Production Facility in 2011. In 2012, she was recruited as Lecturer (Probationary) to the Department of Biotechnology. She completed her MSc. degree in Molecular and Applied Microbiology from Post Graduate Institute of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya in 2014. She engaged in many research activities in the field of Biotechnology. In her undergraduate research project carried out in the Plant Virus Indexing Centre, Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka, she developed an ELISA technique to detect the Banana Bract Mosaic Virus in Banana. Thereafter, in her In-Plant training programme in the Institute of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IBMBB), University of Colombo, she engaged in two Plant Molecular Genetic projects on Genetic Differentiation of Sri Lankan Traditional Rice Varieties using Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Markers and Identification and Characterization of Potential Disease Resistant Genes from Sri Lankan Traditional, Wild and Weedy Rice Varieties (Oryza Sativa L.). She also worked in a Plant Tissue Culture project of Cashew done as a collaborated research project of Wayamba University of Sri Lanka and Cashew Corporation of Sri Lanka in the period as an Assistant lecturer of the Department of Biotechnology. Now, she is working in the ongoing research project on “Using of Molecular Techniques for Identification of Biodegrading Bacteria and Their Molecular Mechanisms as a Primary Attempt to Develop a Bioremediation Strategy to treat Wastewater in the Department of Biotechnology.

Environmental Biotechnology and Molecular Pathology